To the Editor:
Last week Professor Sean Wilentz sent a letter to the editor regarding a comment I made about PILOTs in an email [“Noting that Council Candidates Should Address PILOT Deals Throughout Town, Mailbox, May 13]. Let me go on record acknowledging that Sean’s quote was accurate — I did indeed say I am comfortable rebalancing the funds we pay to the county under a PILOT. Allow me to explain.
Sean’s comments reflect a common misunderstanding of how PILOTs work. The county’s budget is set to address the needs of their operations including many expenses —infrastructure, community college operations, recreational activities, and yes, supporting the financially disadvantaged. This budget is then paid by the many municipalities that comprise the county, based on their ratables. Granting a long-term tax exemption (with a PILOT) removes a property from Princeton’s ratables, slowing the growth in our share of what we pay to support the county budget, and reallocating that share to the other municipalities in the county. It does not reduce the total dollars available to the county.
Many Princeton residents don’t realize that we have a surprisingly large population of Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (A.L.I.C.E.) residents. We on Council take very seriously our responsibility to support our financially challenged residents. For this reason, we fund our own municipal Human Services department, something almost unheard of in the state. Over time, past Councils have also agreed to take responsibility for roads which used to be county roads, and parks, like Herrontown Woods, which used to be a county park. This reduces the financial burden on the county, but we don’t get any “credit” for these savings in our share of county taxes. For this reason, I feel comfortable rebalancing the taxes we would otherwise pay among the various other municipalities in the county.
I would like to thank Professor Wilentz for giving me the opportunity to clarify my position and help the community better understand the true impact of PILOTs.